Preparation of defined-length tubing sections, e.g. for welding, is a common operation in various industrial applications. One such application, the manufacture of ultrahigh purity gas cabinets for the semiconductor industry, requires tubing that is of precise predetermined length and which has smooth, square-cut, and burr-free ends for clean, precise and reproducible welding. Even small irregularities in the abutting ends of tubing to be welded can lead to potential contamination sites.
Currently, the preparation of such tubing typically employs multiple discrete operations, which may include a first gross cutting, one or more secondary cutting steps to the precise required length, a deburring step, and in some cases a marking step. Such operations are often carried out manually on a tube-by-tube basis, and do not generally produce uniformly square, smooth, and burr-free ends for welding.
It is thus desirable to provide a cutting apparatus and process which produces tube lengths which are precisely and uniformly cut, and substantially burr-free, in a single operation. A preferred apparatus and process also provides for accurate marking of the cut tubes, and allows automated input and recording of tube parameters, such as batch or lot number, serial number and actual cut length of each tube.